Warren Charles, 44, caused his brother Brent, 50, life changing injuries when he delivered the single shove in the smoking area of the Golden Cross pub in Lancaster Road.

Charles became frustrated at his brother complaining about his wife’s behaviour and they went outside. But when Warren Charles pushed his brother in the chest, Brent stumbled backwards down two steps and banged his head on the hinge of the steel cellar access doors below, Preston Crown Court heard.

Paramedics were called to the pub on the afternoon of September 15 2013 to discover Brent unconscious and bleeding from his ear and the back of his head.

Warren was visibly upset and told emergency services he had pushed his brother.

Long-last affects

Brent was taken to Royal Preston Hospital, where he was placed into an induced coma. Two years later he is still undergoing neurological rehabilitation.

The police launched an inquiry – believing they may soon be investigating a murder – and Warren Charles was arrested. He later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH).

The court heard Brent’s wife now has to care for her husband as if he was one of the children.

He needs a hearing aid and qualifies for the highest rate of disability benefit as a result of his brain injury, the court heard.

Judge’s comments

Judge Newell jailed Warren Charles, a father-of-two, from Westbrook Crescent, Ingol, for 10 months, telling him: “I believe your brother was a fit and active man in employment, in his late 40s.

“His quality of life for the future has been very, very substantially diminished, as has that of his wife and family.

“I am left with a very difficult balancing decision. It is suggested on your behalf that the sentence could be suspended on the basis it may cause damage to you in terms of losing your family, losing your home, losing your employment and the consequential problems that may cause your family.

“On the other side of the coin – while these matters are entirely right – there is the family of Brent Charles, who on a day to day basis and for the foreseeable future will have to deal with their disadvantages, their problems, caused not in a way that was nasty or deliberate but by an ill regarded approach to a problem which occurred. Without that push, none of this would have happened.”

The judge also made a restraining order to keep Charles away from his brother.